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PES Finance Ministers meet to discuss efficient bank resolution

On February 28th the Party of European Socialists (PES) Finance Ministers met in Brussels ahead of the ECOFIN Council to discuss and coordinate their position in relation to the ECOFIN agenda.

The meeting was chaired by Finnish Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen. The Ministers had the opportunity to discuss the recent developments with regards to the construction of the Banking Union and in particular the Single Resolution Mechanism. They highlighted the importance of creating a Mechanism that is efficient and stresses investor responsibility for losses.

The Chairwoman of the PES Finance Ministers meeting Jutta Urpilainen stated: "The discussions for developing a fully fledged Single Resolution Mechanism for banks will continue at the Council meeting today. Our aim remains to develop concrete rules that will protect the public interest, and ensure that the losses are imposed on shareholders and creditors. To achieve this aim we need an efficient resolution mechanism that emphasizes investor responsibility instead of bailing them out with taxpayers' money."

The meeting was also attended by Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Dutch Finance Minister; Rimantas Šadžius, Lithuanian Finance Minister; Edward Scicluna, Maltese Finance Minister; Liviu Voinea, Romanian Budget Minister; Slavko Linić, Croatian Finance Minister, Hannes Swoboda President of the S&D Group in the European Parliament, and Elisa Ferreira, Member of the S&D Group in the European Parliament.